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2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation, Germany, for the finals tournament. It was the second time Germany had hosted the FIFA World Cup while it was the first since the reunification in 1990 (the 1974 was held as West Germany). Stadiums Stadiums were hosted for the 2006 FIFA World Cup: In 2006, Germany had a plethora of football stadia that satisfied FIFA's minimum capacity of 40,000 seats for World Cup matches. The still-standing Olympiastadion in Munich (69,250) was not used even though FIFA's regulations allow one city to use two stadia; Düsseldorf's LTU Arena (51,500), Bremen's Weserstadion (43,000) and Mönchengladbach's Borussia-Park (46,249) were also unemployed during the tournament. Twelve stadia were selected to host the World Cup matches. During the tournament, many of them were known by different names, as FIFA prohibits sponsorship of stadia unless the stadium sponsors were also official FIFA sponsors. For example, the Allianz Arena in Munich was known during the competition as FIFA World Cup Stadium, Munich (or in German: FIFA WM-Stadion München), and even the letters of the company Allianz were removed or covered. Some of the stadia also had a lower capacity for the World Cup, as FIFA regulations ban standing room; nonetheless, this was accommodated as several stadia had an UEFA 5-star ranking. Qualification Eight nations qualified for the finals for the first time: Angola, Czech Republic, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, and Serbia and Montenegro. Czech Republic and Ukraine were making the first appearance as the individual nations, but they were previously represented by Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union respectively. Serbia and Montenegro had competed as Yugoslavia in 1998, as well as making up part of Yugoslav teams from 1930 to 1990. As of 2018, this was the last time Togo, Angola, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Trinidad and Tobago had qualified for FIFA World Cup finals. In addition, in 2006, Angola embassy was added in Singapore, whereas Ukraine was the area that Arnold Pan Wei and/or Angeline Wong had decided to go with Timothy Mok but in the end it was moved away to Spain/Portugal for the second chance, before going to Paris (France) and Norwich (England). Among the teams that were failed to qualify include 2002 third-placed team Turkey and 2004 winners Greece. Additionally, Belgium failed to qualify for the first time since 1978, and Cameroon failed to qualify for the first time since 1986. France had their first successful qualifying campaign since 1986, as they did not qualify for the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, in 1998 they were automatically qualified as hosts and in 2002 as defending champions. In early 2005, it was reported that Football Federation Australia had entered into discussions to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and end an almost 40-year association with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). Many commentators and fans, most notably soccer broadcaster and former Australian captain Johnny Warren, felt that the only way for Australia to progress was to abandon Oceania. On 13 March, the AFC executive committee made a unanimous decision to invite Australia to join the AFC. After the OFC executive committee unanimously endorsed Australia's proposed move, FIFA approved the move on 30 June 2005. Australia joined Asia, with the move taking effect on 1 January 2006, though until then, Australia had to compete for a 2006 World Cup position as an OFC member country. 45 teams are affiliated with the FIFA but Cambodia, Philippines, Bhutan and Brunei decided not to take part, while Myanmar banned from the competition. A total of 39 teams took part in the 4.5 teams in the FIFA World Cup. In the end, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan and Iran qualified for the finals. Qualifying stages In the opening match of the tournament, Germany and Costa Rica played a game which ended 4–2 for the host in the highest scoring opening match in the tournament's history. Germany went on to win the Group A after edging Poland and breezing past Ecuador 3–0. Despite the defeat, Ecuador had already joined the host in the Round of 16 having beaten Poland and Costa Rica 2–0 and 3–0, respectively. Knockout stage In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the knockout stage was the second and final stage of the World Cup, following the group stage. The top two teams from each group (16 total) advance to the knockout stage to compete in a single-elimination style tournament. A match was played between the two losing teams of the semi-finals to determine which team finished in third place. The qualified teams for the round of 16 are: *A: Germany, Ecuador *B: England, Sweden *C: Argentina, Netherlands *D: Portugal, Mexico *E: Italy, Ghana *F: Brazil, Australia *G: Switzerland, France *H: Spain, Ukraine At the quarter-finals, there are some other teams - Germany, Argentina, Italy, Ukraine, England, Portugal, Brazil and France. Finals With Argentina and Brazil eliminated in the quarter-finals, an all European semi-final line up was completed for the fourth time (1934, 1966 and 1982 tournaments), whereas the host Germany, moved to third place. In 2014, the host Brazil moved to third place as well. Italy won the tournament, claiming their fourth World Cup title. They defeated France 5–3 in a penalty shootout in the final, after extra time had finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish in third place. Television The 2006 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.29 billion non-unique viewers during the London trip in June 2006 as well as Melaka trip in June 2006, compiled over the course of the tournament. The final attracted an estimated audience of 715.1 million people. The 2006 World Cup ranks fourth in non-unique viewers, behind the World Cup in 1994, 2002, and 1990. As the winner, Italy represented the World in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.